SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND SOCIAL CONFLICTS

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Social movements often have unlikely begin­nings. Hardly anyone could have guessed, for example, that a few followers of a Jewish here­tic in a remote corner of the Roman Empire would start a religious movement that would eventually convert the entire Western world. Nor was there any way of knowing that a hand­ful of Russian conspirators, inspired by the ideas of an obscure German economist, would become the vanguard for political revolutions all over the globe. However, several theories explain the reasons social movements such as Christianity and communism get started, how they attract followers, and why they eventually succeed or fail.

The Chicago school of sociology, led by Robert E. Park and his students, developed a natural history, or "stages," approach to the study of social movements. According to this classical model, social movements arise out of three conditions: (1) deep and widespread dis­content, (2) a generalized belief in some cause of or solution to the problem, and (3) grass­roots support for a collective effort to do some­thing about it. Popular grievances may be due to either absolute deprivation, such as poverty or oppression, or relative deprivation, the sense of being poor or oppressed in comparison to other times or other people Fluctuations in the level of popular discontent are thought to affect the rise and fall of social movements.

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All social movements have three character­istics in common:

Social movements seek specific goals. Neil Smelser has distinguished between norm- oriented social movements, which at­tempt to protect or change social norms, and value-oriented social movements, which seek to protect or change social val­ues. The labor union movement, for exam­ple, was norm-oriented: it sought to change the norms affecting workers by advocating such reforms as higher wage scales and bet­ter working conditions. The value-oriented abolitionist movement, on the other hand, was largely a moral and religious crusade against slavery.

A third type of social movement is the revolutionary movement. Revolutionary movements seek to bring about fundamental changes in an entire social structure. Successful revolu­tions, such as the Protestant Reformation and the French Revolution, transformed existing institutions and ushered in new eras in social relationships.

Social movements are cohesive organizations. Participants in social movements share a sense of purpose that helps the organization survive for a relatively long time. It is this feeling of commitment to long-term goals that distinguishes social movements from collective behaviour.

3. Social movements have a unifying ideology. All social movements have a set of ideas, or an ideology, that justifies protest and change.

The members may not all have exactly the same beliefs, but they share basic values and convictions.

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"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," Charles Dickens said of the French Revolution. It was the best of times, he thought, because a heartless and foolish regime had been overthrown and basic human rights declared. It was also the worst of times because it unleashed the destructive forces of hatred and anger that led to the guillotine and the Reign of Terror. These are two of the many aspects of revolution that fascinate social histo­rians. The causes of revolution are often de­bated: Why do people rebel? At what point do formerly peaceful citizens stop putting up with a corrupt or inefficient system?